The textile industry is primarily concerned with the design, manufacture, trade and distribution of fabrics. Textile manufacturing has come a long way, from domestic production using wool, cotton and flax in historical times to organized industry using spinning wheels and handlooms in the 18th Century to current day, leveraging modern techniques, electronics and innovation in man-made fibres to produce almost any type of cloth or design a person could desire.

Overview

Indian Textile industry is presently one of the largest and most important industries in the Indian economy in terms of output, foreign exchange earnings and employment generation.

Textile industry has made a major contribution to the national economy in terms of direct and indirect employment generation and net foreign exchange earnings. One of the earliest to come into existence in India, it contributes 4% to the country’s GDP, 14% to the country’s industrial production and around 12% to the country’s foreign exchange earnings, 18 per cent of employment in the industrial sector, 9 per cent of excise duty collections and more than 30 per cent of Indian’s total exports. (As per textile review).

Exports have always remained robust, but now, the domestic textile market is also witnessing a strong upward trajectory due to the improving economic position of the country.

Some of the factors that led to growth of this sector are:

The textile industry has been doing extremely well during the last few years in terms of production & export and has been investing heavily in expansion and modernization of capacity.

India has been experiencing strong performance in the textile industry, across different segments of the value chain, from raw materials to garments. Domestic production has been growing, as well as exports.

Wool: India’s wool industry is primarily located in the northern states of Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan. These three states alone account for more than 75 per cent of the production capacity, with both licensed and decentralised players. The woollen industry provides employment to approximately 1.2 million people.

Silk: India is the second largest producer of silk in the world, contributing about 18 per cent to global production. Growing demand for traditional silk fabrics and exports of handloom products have spurred growth in silk demand.

Jute: Jute industry occupies an important place in India’s economy, being one of the major industries in the eastern region, particularly in West Bengal. It supports nearly 4 million farming families, besides providing direct employment to 260,000 industrial workers and livelihood to another 140,000 people in the tertiary sector and allied activities.

Handloom: The handloom sector is based on Indian traditional crafts. It employs nearly 7.5 million people and contributes 13 per cent to cloth production.

Employment Avenues

Textile job openings primarily fall into the categories of textile design jobs, textile pattern makers, fabric and apparel jobs and knitting jobs. Other related jobs for professionals include those with a background in marketing, process development, finance and administration, packaging as well as technicians.

Thrust Areas

Innovative marketing strategies

Diversification of product

Enhancement of textile oriented technology

Quality awareness

Intensifying raw materials

Growth of productivity

Increase in exports

Financing arrangements

Creating employment opportunities

Human Resource Development

Challenges Ahead

Fragmented structure with the dominance of the small scale sector

High power costs

Rising interest rates and transaction costs

Unfriendly labour laws

Logistical disadvantages in terms of shipping costs and time pose serious threats to its growth

Foreign investments are not coming in as the overall factors influencing the industry are not investment friendly